


Birds of a Feather

by MockingJay_Wing1



Category: Maximum Ride - James Patterson
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-06-09 03:06:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15258057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MockingJay_Wing1/pseuds/MockingJay_Wing1
Summary: The story of Max's clone, Maya, as she undertakes her own journey.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is a little different from the source material, but it's how I would have like the story to go, so meh.

_ **Birds of a Feather.** _

 

 

_ **Prologue.** _

 

 

White. That's the first thing I remember. White ceiling, white floor, white lab coats. I remember the feeling of the straps as they cut into my wrists, holding me to the examination table. I remember the first words I ever heard, spoken by one of the scientists working with me: “Vitals are stable. She's going to pull through.” After that, there was a long period where everything was dark, and the only interaction I had with the outside world was a television that was constantly on, annoying me with it's constant lessons about language, walking, eating, and all the other things that normal people do. I remember the feeling of not being able to stretch my wings out, confined to a cell. Most of all, however, I remember the day I was given my mission. My name is Maya, and this is _my_ side of the story.

 

 

 

 

_** Chapter One. ** _

 

They come for me one night when I'm sleeping, bundle me up, and take me into a part of the building that I've never been in. When the bag is pulled off of my head, the first thing I see is a nondescript looking man sitting on a desk chair in front of me. “My name is Jeb Batchelder, but you can call me sir.” He raises an eyebrow. “Yes?” I say. One of the goons standing nearby suddenly punches me in the stomach. “That'll be _yes, sir_ , young lady,” Jeb says, unperturbed. “Yes, _sir,_ ” I grind out. My voice is hoarse and painful to use, from all that time of disuse. “Now,” Jeb says, rubbing his hands together, as if he were cold. “You have a task ahead of you. You were created specifically for this purpose. You need to learn the mannerisms and traits of... _her,_ ” he says, pointing at a picture on a screen to our left. It shows a girl, more of a young woman really, with brown and blonde hair, and hazel eyes. I gasp, and stand up so fast, my chair falls over. “That's me!” I say in amazement. I hear a chuckle, and see Jeb shaking his head. “No, child, _that_ is Maximum Ride. She's an experiment gone wrong that has been on the run for years now. Traveling with a, ahem, 'flock', she's eluded capture time and again. No more. Now, we have you. _Her clone._ ”

“ _What?_ ” I spit, a cold lump of fear growing inside me. “I'm no _clone_ , I'm a person, I'm...I...” Jeb smiles, and not in a nasty way. “Child, you were grown in a test tube. You're no-one.” He nods at the guards. “Take her. Begin her training.” I struggle and kick, but they're bigger and stronger, and they restrain me. Once outside, they take me to a obstacle course, obviously new. “Alright, miss. We're gonna remove your restraints now, but if you attack us, I will personally tase you and put you back in solitary, ok?” the bigger one says. I swallow my anger and nod. They remove the restraints, then step back quickly. “Alright,” I say. “What's the deal here?” The same guard grins. “Complete the course. Oh, and don't even think about flying out, there's a chip in your neck that will knock you out the minute you get past the roof.” I grunt, loosening my shoulders. I extend my wings to their full thirteen-foot width. The stretch feels amazing, invigorating me. I leap straight up, beating at the air, and all of a sudden, I'm up. Flying. _This feels amazing,_ I think as I swoop around the high ceilinged room. I hear the big guy yell: “Try hitting something!” _Ok,_ _why not?_ I think, as I dive sharply, heading straight at a dummy obviously set up for the purpose of having the shit kicked out of it. I rear up and punch with my right hand, expecting to hit it solidly and maybe make it rock on it's post. Instead, the dummy's head explodes as my hand hits it, and the body flies off the post and hits the wall. I hear applause, and as I turn, I see Jeb watching from an upstairs window. “You obviously don't know your own strength, girl!” he shouts. I train for hours, learning how to avoid obstacles in mid-air, and how to execute a vertical take-off without straining my wings too much. Next, the guards take me to a room with a stern woman in it, who coaches me for hours more about how to act, speak, fly, basically how to _be_ Maximum Ride. And slowly, a little grain of hatred starts to grow in me, hatred for this perfect experiment that I'm a pale shadow of. That grain smoulders inside me for the months that lead up to my first mission: Spying on the target, alongside Jeb's Eraser son Ari.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a bit more playing around with the story, from Maya's POV

“I can see them,” Ari grunts. I stretch and yawn. Oof. This tree is really uncomfortable. “Finally. What're they doing?” He ignores me, his eyes pressed to his binoculars. I reach out and prod him, not gently. “What?” he snarls, glancing up. “What are they doing?” I ask again. “Uh, Fang's sitting eating, Gazzy...looks like he's making something, Iggy is doing the dishes, Nudge is...Where's Nudge? Ah, there, playing with that mutt in the yard.” I frown. “Where's Max?” Ari smirks. “In the shower.” I sigh. “Of course she is...” I try and hunker down into a more comfortable position. Ari's such an idiot, I think fiercely. Suddenly, a call comes through on Ari's sat phone. He picks it up, and immediately straightens. “Yes, sir. Yes. Understood.” He hangs up, and turns to me. “We are authorised to engage.” I grin. “When?” “Oh, no, not you,” he says. “Just me and my Erasers. You're to be kept a secret.”   
I groan, reaching for my pack. We climb down the tree and hop into Ari's Jeep. It's not fair, I think. I should be allowed to fight. We reach base camp after about an hour, and Ari alerts the troops. “We're gonna go for them when they're on their way back from that school. Quick smash and grab, knock 'em out and stash them in the truck. Got it?” “Yessir!” comes from their collective throats. “And you,” he says, turning to me. “Stay hidden. You can come in the truck, but don't let them see you, especially her.” He doesn't even need to say the name for me to know who he's talking about. Ari's Erasers bundle their sorry asses into the Jeep and we're off, bumping over logs and potholes. We eventually screech to a halt near the outskirts of a clearing. The Erasers are grinning and sharpening knives, talking in their guttural voices until Ari silences them with a gesture. The Flock is here. Ari jams his foot on the accelerator and pulls out in front of the bird-kids, pokes his head out of the window, then spouts some dumb one-liner he's probably been dreaming up all day. The Flock squares up for a fight, and I relax in the back seat, as Ari and the Erasers get their asses handed to them. One bird-kid in particular catches my eye, and I watch as Fang rips into three Erasers at once, dodging their clumsy punches and firing in short, hard hits of his own. His movements are fast and graceful, a huge contrast to the hulking wolf-men. Ari calls a retreat, and as the Erasers get back in the car, I briefly lock eyes with Max. Her eyes widen in confusion, then narrow. Ari accelerates, and we're gone. Back at camp, while the Erasers nurse their various wounds, Ari throws a hissy fit, eventually kicking our Jeep so hard it leaves a dent. I decide that enough is enough, and I take to the air, powerfully pushing down and back with my wings, shooting upward, leaving Ari to his rage. I fly for ages, clearing my head of anything except the sensation of being in the air, shooting through the sky like a feathered bullet. Being up here, I can almost pretend I'm free...Then reality kicks in, and I hear Ari talking through my earpiece. Sighing, I swing round in a u-turn at on hundred miles an hour, then arrow back toward the campsite.


End file.
